MOUND BUILDERS

Mounds of earth, sometimes created as effigies, have been throughout the Dubuque area.

MOUND BUILDERS. The term "mound builders" is used by archaeologists to describe various Native Americans who constructed humps of earth in various sizes and shapes from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and from the MISSISSIPPI RIVER eastward to the Appalachians. The favorite location was the crest of a hill, or well up toward the top, on terraces. An elevation was chosen, perhaps because of fear of floods, or perhaps because of security against attack. The mounds contain skeletons, stone weapons, pottery and rude engravings on stone. Stone images of the elephant and other animals now foreign to Iowa are unearthed. (1)

In Iowa the "mound builders" succeeded a group of people much like the Eskimos. (2) Early miners in the Dubuque area were intrigued by the hills of earth. Some mounds were elongated, but most were found in a conical shape. (3)

Lucius Hart LANGWORTHY mentioned mounds in speaking before the Dubuque Literary and Scientific Institute in 1854. Richard HERRMANN took note of the mounds and carefully recorded and drew pictures of his many discoveries. Scientists at the time had many theories. These included the thoughts that the people who had constructed them were the lost tribes of Israel or an off-shoot of the Toltecs whose civilization once thrived in Mexico. In the 19th century some archaeologists believed that the people were a distinct American race distinct from other world peoples. The mounds were thought by some to have been used as a crude fortification. (1)

The largest of the mounds in the area was opened in 1857 in East Dubuque. It measured sixty feet in diameter and stood eleven feet tall. Inside were found a skeleton over seven feet in height, lances, a oopper crown, perforate bear's teeth, shells and a bead work headdress and waistband. There was also a chamber of rough stone covered with oak timbers. In the center was a stove-like enclosure with the skeletons of a dog, children, and adults seated in a circle. (2)

In June, 1880 the Dubuque Herald announced that a few of "our scientific citizens" were planning to explore some of the local mounds to learn "more of a prehistoric race with some degree of civilization." (3)

Under the direction of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D. C., an organized mound exploration was conducted in 1882. (4) A large group of seventy mounds once existed along LAKE PEOSTA ranging from two feet to twenty feet in diameter. (5) Mounds at EAGLE POINT were surveyed by Colonel P. L. Norris. Cyrus Thomas, director of a national program to explore the mounds, wrote in his final report that mound builders appeared to come from several cultures and were simply early Iowa natives. While possibly related to then existing Native Americans, the mound builders were not directly related to the MESKWAKIES who migrated into the region in the mid-1770s. (6)

Some of the mounds in the Dubuque area were constructed by the Hopewell Culture, pre-historic people who lived in this area between 500 and 1200 A. D. Later they either joined or were conquered by another mound building group that moved up from the southern area of the Mississippi Valley. Eventually the mound builders lost their distinct identity as they traded and intermarried with other groups in the region. (7)

In 1978 the Iowa State Archaeologist department had six months to survey cultural and natural resoures along the 160-mile GREAT RIVER ROAD in seven eastern Iowa counties for the Iowa Department of Transportation. After reviewing previous survey records, only seven known prehistoric mound complexes and work sites could be found in Dubuque County. Within a few weeks, however, twenty-eight more were identified including twelve work sites and 14 mound complexes with a total of more than seventy mounds. One complex contained thirty thirty mostly conical-shaped mounds. This became the LITTLE MAQUOKETA RIVER MOUNDS PRESERVE between Dubuque and Sageville. The effigy farthest south in the Effigy Mound Culture of Wisconsin and Iowa is thought to be one more than 100 feet long and up to two feet high in a backyard north of South Grandview Avenue in Dubuque. (8)

Construction of the DUBUQUE-WISCONSIN BRIDGE was brought to an abrupt halt in July 1980, when it was discovered that the route of the highway in Wisconsin ran through a Native American burial site. Dating back as far as 1,300 years, the area had one linear-shaped fifteen-foot long mound with a cone-shaped mound at the northern end. This contained the remains of two, and possibly more, infants. Before the site was excavated, a Winnebago medicine man from Wisconsin sanctified the ground with prayers. The remains were reburied nearby in similar shaped mounds made of the same earth. (Photo Courtesy: National Park Service)

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Source:

1. Sabin, Edwin L. The Making of Iowa, Chapter 4 "Iowa's Indians," Chicago: A. Flanagan Company, 1900, Online: http://iagenweb.org/history/moi/MOIChp4.htm

2. Dahlinger, Mark. "Dubuque Once Home of Mound Builders," Telegraph Herald, May 8, 1955, p. 41

3. "Caught on the Fly," Dubuque Herald, June 4, 1880, p. 4. Online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=uh8FjILnQOkC&dat=18800604&printsec=frontpage&hl=en

4. Sabin.

5. Dahlinger.

6. "Burial Mounds Dot Area," Telegraph Herald, June 26, 1960

7. Ibid.

8. Schwar, Kathy, "Burial Mounds Crop Up Around Dubuque," Telegraph Herald, May 21, 1978, p. 8